Lithuania 2025 - Katarsis – Tavo Akys

 

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Lithuania is a curious fish when it comes to this contest. Just when you think you're getting a handle on the kind of thing they like to send, they frequently confound your expectations by veering off in a completely unexpected direction. And they appear to have done exactly that with the song they eventually sent to Basel.

Now me and Mrs A go back a long way with Eurovision national finals. It used to be that if there was so much of a sniff of someone waving their hand about in front of a guitar it was a given that they were immediately doomed. It's a difficult mindset to completely scrub out of your brain, so when we both found ourself perched on the fronts of our respective sofas within about ten seconds of this song starting we automatically assumed the worst.

The chiming funereal guitars and slow-pounding primal drums lured us hypnotically into the song's sad post-punk reverie, as the moon-faced boy with the shaggy barnet out front prowled around the stage like an agitated marmot, luring us into his private gloom with the downbeat fairytale delivery. It's the kind of band that we're more used to seeing from an act second on a four band bill in some damp and dingy small town gig venue, and it's the kind of song that would have stopped us in our tracks, curtailing our conversation with the headliner's bass player to stop and stare at the glacial goth whirlwind that was starting to swirl in the two-inch stage in the corner.

It's the kind of song that we'll usually chuck on a Lost Songs of ESC - Dark Edition playlist and play it until it's tattooed on our ears, but we never in a million years imagined that it ever stood a chance of actually winning the ticket to the big show. Quite how it'll do there is impossible to guess, but one fears that it'll be too artsy for the juries and gloomy for the punters, and will probably struggle to even get out of its semi. But then again, that's pretty much what we thought of its chances of so much as getting out of their semi!

However it does, though,  it's in the canon now, and we've got a new favourite Lithuanian band!